


Hurt Me

by anonymousCat



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, M/M, it's cute at first and then angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 03:38:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4289292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousCat/pseuds/anonymousCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being in love with his best friend was driving him crazy, he just had to get it off his chest. Too bad it doesn't go the way he plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hurt Me

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen a lot of fics where Tsukishima breaks Yamaguchi's heart. I wanted a story where the opposite happened.
> 
> For those who don't know. Shibuya is the fashion/shopping district and Akihabara is like eletronics anime and cafes. All the places I mentioned are actual stores in Akihabara.
> 
> Also you'll see I use some first names and some family names or in Yachi's case I switch. This is because this was kind of written from Kei's point of view.
> 
> This of course is unedited.

Kei had realized his crush long before he really understood it, being a young kid with a crush isn’t the same once you hit puberty. Once you hit puberty it all shifts from ‘yes I want to be around this person all the time because they’re my best friend’ to ‘I can’t breathe properly when we’re in the same room, stop being so fucking cute your making me crazy’ and add in ‘I desperately want to bang that’. 

That's what happened around the time that Kei had turned 13. He looked at the other boy and thought, 'Yes I want to kiss you.' Now he doesn't remember what Tadashi had been doing at the time, but he knows that it had been overwhelmingly cute and it had been overwhelmingly hard not to kiss the brunet right then. It had happened so suddenly that it had made him dizzy.

So Kei - with nobody else to turn to - be grudgingly went and talked to Akiteru. The older boy had listened to what he had to say with great interest. The older blonde giggled behind his hand and smirked at him. "Well, Kei it sounds like you have a crush."

"You're a lair." he walks away ignoring his pout, whining older brother and heads back to his room slamming the door behind him. He didn't want to admit it but he knew that his brother was most likely correct about the whole ordeal, now he's just glad that he didn't tell his brother who it was that stirred up these feelings inside him. He'd never live it down.

There was no way in hell that he has a crush on Tadashi. Nope.

\----

The day was warm, almost uncomfortably so but not quit there yet. Practice was drawing to an early close because -almost- everybody was filled with a nervous energy and they were having trouble concentrating on anything any more. Tadashi was stretched out in the grass relaxing eyes closed as he listens to Yachi ramble on to Hinata and Kageyama. Kei's eyes are on his friend as he walks over to join the other first years.

Some where along the way Kei had managed to get in-tangled in an awkward friendship with the female blonde. It probably had something to do with the fact that she had accidentally admitted to him that she liked girls. Long story short Yachi swore up and down that he was trying to blackmail her but he 'couldn't blackmail her anymore if she just told everyone she liked girls' or something along those lines. To put her at ease when he told her that he had no clue what she was talking about, he admit his secret to her. She'd looked a him with pity in her eyes, but said nothing about it and Kei didn't ask.

They'd hung out a few times since then. Mainly because she had a pretty good taste in music as far as Kei was concerned and they had spent a day in a music store that had just opened, and it had been fun. The feeling of having friends was a new one for him, yeah Tadashi had always been there, but he was different for several reasons, but the feeling wasn't entirely unwelcoming. It was helping him grow as a person and he knew it.

On a good day he'd even go as far as to day that he was friends with Kuroo, but only on a good day.

And never to his face. He'd rather eat glass than admit it.

He takes it back, he and Kuroo are -anything- but friends. (Even though they totally are.)

"Tsukki?" He jumps and turns his attention to Tadashi who is sitting up now, smiling at him knowingly, "Are you there?"

"Of course I am where else would I be?" 

Tadashi chuckles, "Hinata-" "Shouuuuyouuuu" "Right, Shouuuuyouuuu asked me if we wanted to go get meat buns with them?"

He glances at the other three sitting with them. "Whatever."

"Well that's pretty much a yes."

Hinata cheers and Kei turns his attention back to Tadashi, "Still coming over to study?"

Tadashi groans, "Yes, my English grade tells me I could use the help."

Hinata perks up, "Can you help me too?"

"No." Kei says flatly, "I don't have time to deal with morons."

"Hey!" Hinata pouts at him.

"Aw come on Tsukishima, we could all study together." Yachi smiles softly at him and he gives her a betrayed look.

"It'll make it more fun."

"What are you? A masochist? You're definition of fun must mean suffering."

He gives Kei a hurt look, "That's not very nice." His expression turns into a pout. "Come on, Tsukki."

Kei sighs knowing if he doesn't get that look off his face he's going to give in. "I already spend enough time as it is around these morons, I don't think I can handle anymore."

Yachi swoops into save him, she sighs. "Next time then?"

"I doubt it." He says not looking at her, but she chuckles.

"Yeah next time." Tadashi grins widely.

"Whatever." Tadashi grins wider because he knows that he's won. 

"Wooooahh! Lets go then! I'm starving!" Hinata springs to his feet chanting meat bun as he runs off to get his stuff.

Kei sighs as he stands up lagging behind everybody else, he just wants to get this over with because he knows that he's not going to get out of.

But that night when Tadashi leaves his house with a huge excited smile on his face it make everything worth it. Well almost worth it. He's going to need to invest in a huge bottle of pain medication if he's going to deal with Hinata and Kageyama more than he already does.

It's the exact moment that Tadashi turns around walking backwards and shouts at him, "Thank you Tsukki." he realizes that this crush isn't something that's just going to go away like he had hoped that it would.

\---

A few nights later they sit in Kei's room studying, once again alone. The blonde was so in grossed in focusing on what he was doing that he couldn't focus at all. It seemed like every time he looked up Tadashi was chewing on his bottom lip in concentration and it was so infuriatingly sexy and it was driving Kei crazy. So he glared down at his homework like it had done something wrong, but he wasn't really paying attention to what he was writing. He almost didn't notice Tadashi trying to get his attention.

"Tsukki, are you even paying attention?" Tadashi waves a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?"

Tadashi frowns at him. "You just wrote everything wrong here." he points at the sentence that Kei had just finished translating. 

He blinks and looks down at it, "The fact that you caught that means that you've improved all ready." Kei's to busy correcting his error to notice the flush that dust Tadashi's cheeks. It was for the best though because Kei would have stayed up way too late trying to analyze it trying to figure exactly what it meant.

Yeah, he was at the 'I'm totally fucked stage' and there was no going back anymore. He was doomed to this.

"So are you actually going to keep your promise?" When Kei looks up Tadashi is smiling softly at him.

"What promise?" His eyebrows knit together trying to figure exactly which one Tadashi was referring to. He'd made a couple over the last several months, and several over the years.

"About helping Shouuuuyouuuu and Kageyama?" he chuckles as if he's told his own little private joke.

"I made no such promise." He turns his attention back to his paper even knowing Tadashi wasn't done trying to get what he wanted. "I don't know why you're so eager to be with them all the time."

He just gets a huff for a response to that. "Why do you have to be so difficult especially when we both know that you don't mind them as much as you like to pretend you do. Come on, it'd not that bad."

"I've already told you why I don't want to do it. It's too much of a hassle."

"But you go out of your way to help me." there's a determined look in his face. The same look he gets when he slips up in practice and is dead set on getting it right.

"You're different." Kei says without glancing up, his eyes trained on the paper in front of him even though he's not really taking in the information there. His heart rate picks up.

"Why am I so different?"

"Because we're friends and they're annoying." he finally looks up at Tadashi his expression completely blank. "You don't make me feel like eating glass is a better alternative to your company." He's being over dramatic and even he knows it.

"You don't think that, Tsukki." It's not a question because the brunet knows. "Wait... I mean you don't think eating glass is better than being around them." Kei lets out a sigh as Tadashi continues to ramble, "Ah! Sorry Tsukki. Will you at least try and be friendlier? For me? I mean you already made friends with Yachi."

"She has good taste in music."

"Then you should find something you like about Shouyou and Kageyama too."

Kei lets out another frustrated sigh. That was going to be harder than Tadashi thought. "I like how Kageyama is quiet most of the time."

"That's... uh... a thing. Now for Shouyou." the brunet looks hopeful.

He sits there for a long moment thinking about it. "I have nothing."

Tadashi wilts. "Really? Nothing?"

He feels guilty now, "How he doesn't give up? Even though its still kind of annoying its..." his face twist as he tries to come up with a word and fails.

Tadashi chuckles. "That's an improvement I guess. We'll from you it might as well be a compliment."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Tadashi smiles laughing slightly, "Sorry Tsukki." He doesn't sound very sorry though, but Kei is okay with that. He relents and agrees to at least try, but only because Yachi will be there too. 

"Thanks Tsukki." Tadashi smiles at him as he leaves and Kei's insides warm. "Tell you're mom thanks for dinner."

"You already told her your self, besides you're welcome here any time." Kei has always secretly enjoyed the way his family interacts with Tadashi. They always make sure that he feels welcomed, especially with Tadash's own house usually being empty.

"I know but I always appreciate it." The brunet's smile changes. "I'll see you tomorrow Tsukki!" He heads off in the direction of his house and Kei stands there in the door way until he's out of sight.

"You know they say if it's been longer than three months and you haven't gotten over your crush then you're already in love~!" Akiteru says as Kei walks past the living room on his way upstairs.

Kei freezes in the doorway and turns red. "Shut up Akiteru-nii." he stomps up the stairs and slams his door cutting of the sounds of his brother's sulking voice. He flops on his bed angrily and pulls his head phones on, he already knew anyway. He didn't need someone else telling him.

Sleep doesn't come easily that night, his mind over analyzing everything.

\----

The next day Kei found himself at Tadashi's, but they were far from alone. Yachi was sitting to his right and she was the one mainly helping, he only piping in when she was unsure about something. Tadashi was to his left working pretty much by himself only asking questions when he was unsure about something. It wasn't nearly as bad as Kei thought it was going to be.

The idiot duo was actually pretty quiet, now he wished they'd be like this all the time. It was still annoying.

"Tsukki, is this right?" Tadashi asks his eyebrows almost meeting. Kei thought it was endearing.

Their fingers brush as he takes the paper to look over the section that Tadashi is worried about. He see Yachi look up at him, but he doesn't react even though it feels like fire is coursing through his body. "You messed up this part right here. They're called 'lillies' in English." He watches Yachi color slightly out of the corner of his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and your sentence structure is wrong."

"Damnit." he huffs.

"It's okay Tadashi. It looks better than mine." Hinata smiles up at him and shows him his paper ignoring Kageyama's sharp look.

Tadashi's expression changes instantly and he chuckles. "Here I can show you how to fix this. Akiteru-nii showed us a trick." He goes on to explain what Kei's brother had shown Tadashi years before (and of course Kei pretended like Akiteru wasn't even in the room even though he payed pretty close attention to everything the other blonde has said.)

Hinata inhales making a weird wooshing noise when Tadashi's done explaining it. "Thanks! Tsukishima you're brother's pretty smart."

He opens his mouth but Yachi cuts him off, "That's actually really useful. I'm surprised that they don't teach us that." She's scribbling it down in her notebook and Kei deflates.

"It's really been helpful." Tadashi smiles proudly and there's something about the look that simultaneously makes Kei want to kiss him and make him cry. Akiteru isn't his brother, but he's always treated the brunet like he was, Tadashi didn't have any siblings, it was just him because most of the time his parents were on business trips or working late.

Kei had asked him once if it bothered him. "A little, more when I was younger than now. I use to get so lonely, even with ba-chan around, but now I don't feel so alone even when I am. I know that you're always a phone call or a text away and it's reassuring to know that even when you're in the middle of something you'll always take the time to be there for be simply because I need you."

Kei had almost died, it had been so cute and sweet, and also one of the times where he couldn't stop the heat from setting fire to his face. Kei is just coming back from the memory when he hears Hinata's voice.

"Sooooo Tadashi, is there anybody you like." he smiles mischievously. Tadashi has Kei's complete and utter attention by that point. He flushes and stumbles over his words for a couple of seconds before just giving up and nodding. 

"Awe you're not going to tell us who?" The red head pouts and Tadashi shakes his head vigorously. "Are they in this room?"

Kei's heart drops as he waits on edge for Tadashi's next words. "N-no. But even if they were I wouldn't tell you." The way he stares down flushed makes everybody drop it, but Kei wants to pry further. He has to know, but for now he just puts it away in the back of his mind because if he thinks about it any longer he's going to explode.

Tadashi's phone goes off and Kei's heard that tone several times before and he usually jumps on answering it, but to day he only flushes darker and hides his phone away before anybody can see it. "So was that them?" Kei asked with an eyebrow raised.

"No," he looks up finally and for the first time he can't tell if Tadashi was telling the truth or not. "It's just Shimada-san, probably asking if I'm going to come by for practice."

"Then why didn't you answer it?"

Tadashi's eyes narrow on Kei, he knows what Kei is up too, they've been friends for over five years now. He knows how this works and he's not going to fall for it. "Because I didn't want to. Plus I have company and it's rude to talk on the phone. I'll text him later."

"I'd be even ruder to wait until later."

"I don't know why you're making a big deal out of this, but fine I'll text him now." Hinata stares at Kei like something's clicked, but Kageyama just looks between Kei and Tadashi confused, and Yachi just stares down at her notes like they're the most interesting thing ever.

Kei doesn't notice any of this as he stares intently at Tadashi typing out his message, over analyzing every slight change in the brunets expression. But Kei can't pick up anything unusual.

"There are you happy now?"

"Not particularly." They stare at each other for a long while before looking away after coming up with nothing.

Yachi awkwardly clears her throat drawing everybody's attention to her. "So now that everybody's done with English do you want to move on to math?"

Hinata groans loudly and Kageyama smacks him. "Shut up idiot you're being too loud."

"But I haaaateee math!"

Kei sighs his head throbbing, but Tadashi cut him off before he could snap at the red head. "Shouyou, you could think about it like this, math can help you better calculate the angles of the ball while playing."

The idiot duo both perk up at this. "Really? Can something as pointless as math really do something so cool?" He whips around to look at Yachi.

"Y-yeah."

"But you have to be able to do it quickly. Who knows if your pea sized brain is capable of that."

"Hey!" the rest of the night goes by in a blur of pointless bickering, but the awkward tension doesn't ever return.

Kei stays after everybody else has left and helps Tadashi clean up the mess that was left behind. "So are you going to at least tell me who it is?'

Tadashi pauses in washing the dishes. "Who what is?"

"Who it is that you like. I mean I thought that we were supposed to be friends." Kei watches the brunet tense up. He was probably hoping that Kei had forgotten.

"Not yet." He says his ears turning red as he turns back to the dishes, now hoping Kei will leave it at that and he does.

"Only if you promise to tell me eventually."

Tadashi nods. "I promise, Tsukki, you'll be the first person I tell."

"Living rooms clean, I think I'm going to head home now."

"It's getting late are you sure you don't want to just stay?" Tadashi glances over his shoulder.

"No, I have to get stuff ready for morning practice tomorrow." Not quiet a lie but it was more that he wanted to be completely alone, Tadashi was usually exempt from this rule but today he was the reason that Kei wanted to be alone.

"Oh. okay. Will you lock the door behind you?"

"Yeah." Kei leaves Tadashi's house with out another word, but the call of "See you tomorrow Tsukki!" follows him out of the house. Kei feels like he's slowly losing more than just his mind, he feels more like he's losing a little bit of himself to Tadashi every time he's around the brunet.

And he's okay with it it.

\----

By this point Kei knew that he was beyond being able to save himself, and there was nobody else their to save him. He was drowning in a sea of his over affection for this boy who he spent all his free time with, that knew him better than anyone else, but still couldn't figure out that Kei was in too deep in love with him.

Or maybe he had, Kei didn't want to think about that possibility though. There were too many things that could go wrong for Kei if he had.

But there was also the possibility that Tadashi was just waiting for him to say something first because he was too shy, though Kei doubted that was the reasoning. Tadashi had grown a back bone somewhere along the way, and it made him even sexier than before. He'd always gotten off on imagining completely dominating Tadashi before, but now the thought of him pushing back made it all the better.

Not that he'd masturbated to thoughts of having sex with his best friend. That would be creepy.

He ended that thought right there because he knew that it wasn't true.

"Tsukki?" The sudden voice startled Kei out of his looping thoughts, "Are you okay?"

He stares at Kuroo trying not to comment on the nickname, he hates when anybody else calls hims 'Tsukki' besides Tadashi and he knows the Nekoma captain knows that; he does it just to rile Kei up but he won't give the older boy that benefit. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. What's up?" 

"I'm fine, and it's nothing." his expression doesn't change even though the older boy pushes.

"It's freckles isn't it?"

He raises an eye brow at the nickname. "It's nothing, and don't call him that."

"I'll make a deal, you can be as vague as you want and after this I won't bring it up again." Kei raises and eyebrow, "I won't call you Tsukki anymore. For a while."

Kei just sighs, "Why are you so worried anyway?"

"You just took a ball to the back of the head and didn't even so much as flinch, obviously you're not okay."

He grabs his water bottle and takes a huge drink. "And I thought it was you giving me this headache. But fine." Kuroo chuckles but waits for Kei to elaborate. "Have you ever wanted somebody?"

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you mean sexually?" Kei just nods and Kuroo sighs. "Yeah, Sugawara-san has a nice ass." he shrugs it off.

Kei sighs. "Don't let Daichi-san hear you say that. Have you ever been in love."

Kuroo fixes him with a intrigued look. "Can't really say that I've been in love, though I do know what an unrequited crush feels like." The older boy glances across the room at Kenma who's sitting next to Hinata listing to him babble on excitedly. "I let it go before I got in over my head because I knew I had no chance. Not his type."

Kei follows his glaze, "Are they...?"

"Kind of. It's not really official because of the distance but it might as well be."

"And here I thought he'd shack up with the King." Kei snickers and Kuroo shrugs.

"So who is it? Suga?"

"Ah... no that passed quickly this had been building for years." Kuroo covers his mouth laughing. "What? It's been established that everybody Sugawara-sempai comes in contact with gets a crush on him. Nobody is immune, straight guys, lesbians all crush on him at some point or another."

"Well I feel a lot better then. So what's your problem, if its been building for years surly Yama-chan feels that same."

"I want to believe that but I don't think that he does." Kei's eyes glue on Tadashi practicing his serves with Nishinoya and Yachi.

"Huh?" Kuroo follows his glaze. "What do you mean? He's obviously crazy about you."

"I can't say that I know for an absolute fact but I'm pretty sure that he's in love with someone else." Kei stands from his spot and leaves Kuroo. "I think I'm going to call it an early night. I kind of need some time."

"Yeah, you go on, but you know where I am if you change your mind."

Kei gathers his stuff with out a word and starts heading back to the dorm area where they were staying. He hears hurried foot steps behind him and he pauses to see who it is.

"Tsukki?" Tadashi stops when he does.

"I got hit with a ball and my head is killing me. I'm not giving up."

Tadashi's expression relaxes. "Are you alright? Besides the headache I mean."

Kei nods. "Hot and tired, but fine." he licks his lips. He knows as soon as he's done it he's given himself away.

"Do... you have something you want to say to me, Tsukki?"

"Yeah." It comes out a little breathless and high pitch, his next words come out more sure. "I do, but it's neither the time or the place."

"Tsukki?" Tadashi gives him a confused look.

"It's okay Yamaguchi. You go back to practice, I'm going to go lay down." He turns on his heals and heads away from him. Tadashi lets him go with out another word.

\----

Kei had never once thought that he could just tell Tadashi. To him letting Tadashi know that he had feelings for him was on the same level as seppaku. Actually, to Kei, seppaku seemed like the better option. It was getting to the point, though, where it was more of a hassle to hide his feelings then just be honest.

That's how Kei started thinking about spilling his guts to his best friend.

The real consideration of it started with something off handed that Yachi had said. Something along the lines of "Even if he doesn't feel that same, you'll still feel better if you tell him."

"No I won't." is Kei's instant reply. He doesn't believe that for a second, but the more he thinks about it the more he realizes that it might not be that far off from he truth. Maybe he should just do it, but every time that he goes to say something it's just goes wrong. It gets to the point that Kei feels like he's going to go crazy.

He's now has a confession obsession.

He goes to Yachi about it when everything else fails, she laughs and says she'll help him. But he doesn't know what she can really do about it, he trusts her though. 

Though it's a couple of days later when he finds out exactly what Yachi has planned. "We're going to Tokyo for training camp, but we're leaving a day later." she smiles at him. "They're giving us free day to explore Tokyo, I can distract Hinata and Kageyama so you two can run off and do your own thing."

He flushes, but he knows she probably when to great lengths to get this done for him. "Thanks, I really appreciate it..." She looks at him hopefully "Hitoka."

"You're welcome Tsukishima." She beams at him, "Ahh! I have to go! I'll see you later!" She rushes off to who knows where leaving Kei alone with his thoughts.

God he didn't know what he was going to do, but he needed a plan. Unfortunately he didn't know much about Tokyo but luckily he knew someone who did. Unfortunately he rather rub his face on a belt sander than deal with him, but he had to do what he had to do...

\---

"Tsukki, it's odd for you to call me." Key can hear the smirk in his voice and he starts to question why he's doing this. Then he remembers.

"Don't call me that." He huffs and takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry to bother you," he tries being pleasant because he know Kuroo should be studying and he's about to ask for his assistance, "I need your help." He silently adds unfortunately to the end of the sentence.

Kuroo chokes and sputters into the phone for a couple of seconds as the air fills his lungs again. "What? I'm sorry could you repeat that, I don't think I heard you correctly."

Kei stares straight ahead, his head already starting to hurt from this. "I need your help." He sighs as Kuroo starts laughing in disbelief on the other end of the line. It takes a while but get get's a plan solidified no thanks to Kuroo. Kei somehow ended up on the phone with Yaku who was more than willing to help him out with out torturing him.

"Thank you for your help Yaku-san. I really appreciate it." he says sincerely.

"I'm just sorry for all the trouble you had to go through before the phone got to me. Have a good night."

"You too." The line goes dead and Kei stares down at his finalized list. He rubs his face not sure if he can actually pull this off. He wishes he could have more faith in himself, but it's not that easy. If it were that easy he would have done this a long time ago. Kei reads over the list one more time before getting up to take a bath, hoping that it would help him calm down a little because he's starting to get anxious.

It seems some of Tadashi's bad habits were rubbing off on him, and he'd probably find it endearing if it wasn't so annoying. He doesn't understand how anybody can go through life feeling like this. Kei wishes he could stop obsessing over this so much, it's almost like if he get's every detail planed there would be no way Tadashi could say no. But Kei is also rational enough to know that it doesn't matter how well he's planned things will still go wrong. As much as he'd like to there's no way that he can control everything.

Not that he hasn't wished that he could.

He sits in the hot water and thinks back to his conversation with Kuroo. It hadn't been extremely helpful but he'd made a good point. What was Kei going to do if Tadashi did turn him down?

He didn't want to think about it, but he wouldn't treat Tadashi any different and he doubted that Tadashi would treat him different. Though he couldn't say for sure, he wasn't Tadashi and he'd never be able to actually speak for him. It wasn’t in Tadashi’s personality to cut somebody out because of a stupid little crush.

Even though if he was being completely honest he know it went far beyond a simple crush. He would never admit that out loud though. That would be opening up to much for him, that was just too much for him at the moment. But it also wasn’t anybody’s business.

Kei stands up and moves to his bed flopping down on top of the blankets. He pulls on his headphones and turns on his eye pod, more than happy to just fall asleep like this. He was over thinking everything and it was starting to give him a head ache.

\---

Training camp was over and Kei had went over his plan with Hitoka about a thousand times. Though that was mainly for Hitoka’s benefit and not his own. He didn’t need to go over it anymore, he’d already put it to memory. He’d probably remember the plan a long time afterwards. If his plan failed he’d over analyze it looking for anywhere he could have gone wrong, and he’d drive himself insane with it.

This was going to be fun.

“So just to be sure you want me to simply distract them?”

“Yes Hitoka-san, that’s it.” He says holding back his sigh. They’d only been over it about a hundred times in the last hours. “Food will probably work best.” She nods in agreement.

“Okay, but will you send me updates to let me know you two are okay?” She looks up at him worried, and Kei can’t help but think it’s cute.

“Yes.” She smiles up at him. “Come on, lets join the others before they think I’m bullying you or something.” He walks away from her smirking as she panics a following after him. It’s time for them to catch the train do Shibuya. It’ll be easier for them to distract the others there.

Plus the café that Kei was going to take Tadashi to is in Shibuya. 

Tadashi was going to love it, everybody knew that Tadashi was going to love it. It was just in his personality to love animals, and cat cafés were just the place for people who loved animals.  
That and Tadashi was standing beside him rambling about he’d love to try and fit one in before they left. Unsurprisingly Hinata agrees, what is surprising though is that so does Kageyama. He glances at Hitoka who smiles and says something about trying to fit it in. Kei isn’t paying attention though, his mind is in about a thousand miles per hour.

And Hitoka doesn’t even have to try and distract the other two because as soon as they step off the train they’re distracted by a street stall and Kei grabs Tadashi’s hand and pulls him away.

“Tsukkki!” Tadashi squawks as he almost runs to keep up with Kei. “Where are we going? What about the others?”

“Shut up Yamaguchi.” He snaps without meaning too, his feet moving him quickly to their first destination. “You’ll see when we get there.”

“But- what about the others?” Kei continues to kind of pull him along but Yamaguchi falls in step with him.

“We’ll meet back up with them later.” He says in a way that means he doesn’t want to be questioned even knowing Tadashi will question him anyway.

“Why?” Tadashi stares at the place where their hands are still connected curiously, but chalks it up to Kei not wanting to lose him in the sea of people around them. It’s not like anybody is paying them any attention to begin with. 

“Because I’ve had enough of them for a while and could use some time to detox from all the stupidity.” It earns him a snicker and his heart skips a beat.

“Okay Tsukki.” Tadashi smiles oblivious to what Kei is going through. “Will you tell me where you’re going now?”

“You’ll see when we get there.” He gets the reaction he was hoping for when they reach the building and it’s hard to conceal his smile as he watches Tadashi.

“WAHOOO! Did you have this planned all along Tsukki?” His eyes are wide and shining brightly.

“Maybe. Are we just going to stand outside the building or are we going to go in?” He says to cover his embarrassment.

“Ahaha… Sorry, Tsukki.” But Tadashi doesn’t look the least bit sorry as he grins at Kei. He moves over and opens the door for them as they make their way inside.

The trip to the café goes well and he watches Tadashi go around the room looking at all the cats around the room, watches him take pictures of theirs snacks and drinks. That was the best thing about Tadashi. He was so easy to please, and super cute when he got excited.

Kei text’s Hitoka a candid picture of Tadashi nuzzling a bright orange cat as they’re leaving. ‘Phase one complete.’ “Come on, Yamaguchi, there’s somewhere else I want to go now.”

“Huh? Are we meeting up with the others?” Tadashi hurries after Kei who doesn’t reply as he make his way to the train. He pulls out his phone to double check which line they need to take before getting their tickets. “Tsukki!”

“Hm?” He glances at him.

“Where are we going?” He whines looking around trying to get his barring of where he is, but he’s never been here before and he has no clue which train they’re taking. He doesn’t like to be kept in the dark about things.

Kei doesn’t pay him any mind though as they wait on the platform for their train to arrive. They would spend most of the day at their next stop. When the next train comes and Kei starts toward it, Tadashi’s eyes light up again. “We’re going to Akihabara?!”

“Hmmn.” He says nothing else as Tadashi follows him on to the train. He really wants to tell him to shut up, but in the few times that they’ve been to Tokyo they never really got to explore anything, and Tadashi was always talking about how he wanted too.

Kei kept a list of things Tadashi talked about wanting to do every time they were here. “Tsukki, you could at least give me a straight answer you know?”

“Yeah, we’re going to Akihabara.” He says nonchalantly, “I want to look at the headphones while we’re here.” Not a total lie.

“Oh.” Tadashi looks disappointed for a second and Kei almost panics. “Well while we’re here can we look around?” Kei shrugs and turns attention to the window watching buildings fly by. That’s as good as a yes to Tadashi. “Do you know what time we’re supposed to meet up with the sempai?”

“We’re not going to until it’s time to return.”

“Huh?”

“I already okay-ed it with Ennoshita-sempai, we’ll be meeting them on the train ride back to the hotel.”

“So we’re not going to meet back up with the others?” There’s a thoughtful look on his face.

“No.” Tadashi nods figuring as much at this point. Kei was probably in overload and it was probably best to just let him do what he wanted. That didn’t mean that Tadashi couldn’t be curious though. Everything about this was weird, but he didn’t question it. He’d long since gotten used to the weird things that Kei did sometimes.

Akihabara was just as busy as Kei figured it’d be, but he doesn’t let it detour them. He’s on a mission and he’s not going let anything but Tadashi get in his way. “Let’s go look at electronics first.”

“Okay can we go to Radio Kaikan and Super Potato? I’d also like to go to the Gundum Café…” His cheeks puff out.

“Yeah that’s fine.”

Tadashi looks up at him in mild shock. “A-are you feeling okay, Tsukki? You’re being awful nice today.” His eyes narrow, “You’re not up to something are you?”  
“Shut up, Yamaguchi, before I change my mind.”

“Sorry, Tsukki.”

They spend the day looking around at different shops, each of them spending more money than they should have, but they’re both okay with that. They stop and get yakisoba for dinner before heading back to the train.

“Will you tell me where we’re going now?” He looks around the train car as if it’d provide some information to where they’re going.

“Tokyo Tower, you always say how much you want to see it.” Kei pointedly stares out the window fighting the color that rises in his cheeks, his heart racing. This whole day went by way too fast and he’s not prepared for what he’s about to do.

He glances at Yamaguchi who has given up on getting any information out of him and is now messing someone on his phone, there’s a small smile on his face as his fingers move quickly typing out a message that Kei can’t see from this angle.

“Who is it?”

Tadashi jumps and almost drops his phone. “Huh?” He blushes softly embarrassed. “Nobody. Nothing. Just Shouyou wondering where we are…”

His eyes narrow. “Why do you call him that?” No stop, his mind screams, things are going so well right now.

“Shouyou? Because we’re friends and he asked me to call him that. Tsukki are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just curious.”

“You’ve been kind of weird all day. If something’s on your mind you can talk to me about it you know?”

“I do.”

Tadashi huffs, “Then why won’t you just tell me what’s bothering you so we can get this over this?”

“Because nothings bothering me, I’m just tired.” That’s his sign to Tadashi that he doesn’t want to talk about it, but Kei doubt that Tadashi will let it go for very long. It doesn't matter though because he'll be telling him soon anyway, and it doesn't matter how unprepared Kei feels. It's now or never.

He checks his phone and there are a couple of messages from Hitoka, and one from Sugawara wishing him luck. Now he understands Hitoka's messages better. 'It's okay, he's probably always known anyway.' He gets another apology message, but he just puts his phone away and stands up as the announcement for Tokyo Tower plays.

They carry their shopping bags in, nobody really looking at them more than in passing. Kei's glad because he doesn't know if he could handle it. He feels on edge and had the overwhelming, but admittedly irrational, feeling that everybody knows what he's about to do and are going to try and stop him.

He's so worried about it he nearly blurts it out in the crowed elevator before they get to the top.

He's trying to be romantic damn it and he's not going to get this far just to ruin it now. He almost wishes Sugawara was there his presence had a way of calming people down. As quick as he thinks it he takes it back. He'd feel even more on edge with Sugawara's eyes on him.

Tadashi grabs his hand as soon as the elevator opens and drags him out and to the edge. "Oh wow! It's so beautiful. Don't you think, Tsukki?" He studies Tadashi's face and then looks out over Tokyo.

"Yeah."

"I'm so glad we came at night! This was the best idea!" Tadashi gleefully as he presses up against the glass snapping pictures rapidly.

Kei looks around making sure the few people that joined them on their trip up to the special observatory are busy doing their own thing. "I brought you up here for a reason." he licks his lips.

"Huh?" Tadashi puts his phone down and turns his attention to him.

"I uh..." He turn pink.

Tadashi giggles. "Do you need to poop?"

"What? NO!" People turn and look at him and he sighs his face even redder than before. It's now or never. Time to take the plunge.

"Tsukki?"

"Tadashi." The air feel like it leaves the room and Kei almost loses his nerve. "I'm in love you."

Tadashi's eyes widen and realization fills them followed by his face turning red. "Oh..." not the reaction he was hoping for, "Oh Kei... I'm so sorry." and he actually looks sorry this time. "I'm..." he can't look at Kei anymore, "in love with somebody else..."

Now Hitoka's pity looks make sense, a lot of things make sense and Kei steps away from his friend. "Who...?" he barely manages out.

"Tsukki... I don't think I should..." he looks at him and sighs, the name that falls from Tadashi's lips makes Kei's heart drop. He feels like he should have known, all the signs were obvious, it all should have been obvious.

Kei feels so so stupid.

He picks up his shopping bags, "We should head back to meet the other's soon." Tadashi goes to stop him as he walks away and then just lets him go. 

The ride back to meet Hitoka and the other's is quiet and tense, all it takes is the look from Hitoka and it finally dawns in him how much it hurts. Tadashi scurries off to show Hinata and Kageyama all his pictures but Hitoka stays with him. He doesn't cry though even though she keeps insisting he should. He hands over his thank you gift to the blonde girl.

"I'll be okay." His eyes meet Tadashi's.

Eventually.

**Author's Note:**

> To the girls of the Mean Girls Volleyball Club. I'm still not sorry for this pos.
> 
> To everybody else. I'm not sorry to you either.
> 
> I never want to write a date again. What do people usually do on dates? I don't know I think I'm aromantic.


End file.
